Strawberry Milkshakes
by Ara Hannan
Summary: Rikkai, gen. Complete. When Yukimura is hospitalized in the winter, it only makes sense that Marui is a little concerned about his nutritional intake. Nobody can survive on Ensuretainted milkshakes, right?
1. Feeding tubes

**Strawberry Milkshakes**

**Disclaimer:** Familiar characters, settings, events, and concepts all belong to Takeshi Konomi.

**Note: **This started off as a one-shot but got a little too long - so I'll post another chunk or two sometime soon.

Ensure is a high protein meal replacement drink, the same thing as Boost - I honestly have no idea if there's an equivalent in Japan or not.

Oh, poor Yukimura...I discovered Rikkai about the same time I started studying for my nursing boards. Hence, much study break hospital fic.

* * *

Every time Marui Bunta saw a strawberry milkshake, he thought of the hospital. It wasn't an entirely bad association and it didn't prevent him from eating one every once in awhile. However, he knew he'd never be able to eat the cold, pink concoctions without thinking about sick Yukimura and feeding tubes and Kirihara spewing Ensure all over the place.

When Yukimura had gotten sick in December, he'd gotten extremely sick. ICU sick. Hooked up to monitors sick. Full of tubes sick. He'd been hospitalized for two whole weeks before anyone outside his family was even allowed to come and visit him. Sanada and Yanagi went first, and came back upset but in one piece. They said Yukimura was on a ventilator.

Before visiting Yukimura, Marui had associated ventilators with comatose people in dumb soap operas and sappy movies. Despite the breathing tubes shoved down their throats, they always looked nicely asleep and peaceful and clean.

Yukimura had tubes taped all over his face and he was awake and not exactly peaceful. Calm, but definitely not dreaming of kittens and baby angels. The whole hospital set-up freaked Marui out, frankly. He could see everyone's reactions as they were allowed their turns inside Yukimura's cruddy little cubicle. Sanada and Yanagi seemed okay with it, because they were standing next to Yukimura's bed talking to him like any normal person. Kirihara was wide-eyed and would have been shocked into silence if he hadn't been so curious about everything. He repeatedly grabbed at Yanagi's arm and tried to ask questions, glancing furtively at Yukimura. Jackal and Yagyuu were more or less upset, but they'd survive. Niou just seemed pissed off. Marui wanted to leave. And never come back. Ever. Well, at least not until Yukimura could breathe by himself again, anyway.

It was the nurse who stopped him. She didn't physically grab him and tell him to stay put. She didn't say anything to him. In fact, she probably didn't even care that he existed. She just stood up from her place in a corner of the room, looked at the clock, and told them all that she was sorry to get in the way, but it was time for Yukimura to have dinner.

How in the heck was he supposed to eat with a tube shoved down his throat?!

That was when Marui learned what the tube in Yukimura's nose was for and about formula for people who were not babies. He found it more distressing than disgusting.

"Yukimura, we are going to give you such a hard time later." Niou had his arms folded over his chest and he was staring at the plastic bag of white stuff the nurse had just hung on the IV pole.

"You are not!" Sanada barked.

"I don't think he cares," Niou said as he moved to look at Yukimura's face, and Marui sneaked a glance as well. Their captain was still awake, but it was still difficult to tell how he was feeling. He wasn't glaring at anyone, at least.

Marui took another look at the bag on the IV pole, and then looked over his shoulder at the nurse. "What flavor is that stuff?"

"Hmm?" The nurse looked up from her paperwork, not looking particularly concerned. "Probably vanilla, if it's flavored at all."

"Yukimura likes strawberry," Marui commented, thoughtfully chewing his gum and staring at the plastic bag. "Maybe you should give him that."

* * *

One day not long after Niou thought he'd be incredibly clever and brought a can of Ensure to the locker room. "Extra calories for decrepit old people. It's the same stuff they give to Yukimura." He opened the can with a loud pop, the devious look on his face radiating anticipation. "Who wants to try it first? Strawberry flavored – Buchou's favorite! Team-building activity!"

"Yukimura doesn't have to taste it," Yagyuu pointed out dryly, not even bothering to raise an eyebrow at the can Niou was holding out.

"It's just a protein drink." Jackal almost rolled his eyes, reaching for the can. He took a gulp and calmly wiped his mouth with the back of his hand a moment later. "It's a little weird, but it's not horrible."

Yanagi took the can next and took a sip, swishing it through his mouth. "I've had worse," he reported. He inspected the can for a moment, then held it out to Sanada while picking up his water bottle from the floor. "Have some."

Despite the whole thing being Niou's idea, Sanada didn't protest. Marui noted that he didn't seem quite as indifferent to the drink as Jackal and Yanagi, since he swallowed the same gulp twice and looked like he wanted to spit out whatever was left.

Their vice-captain didn't even get a chance to comment before Kirihara was grabbing for the Ensure. "Me next! Hand it over!" He took the can as soon as Sanada shoved it at him with a reprimand for being rude and impatient, taking a long swig. Kirihara actually did spit it out, spraying pink stuff over the floor and down his shirt. He was lucky none landed on Sanada, who was glaring at him like a bug on the ground just for spewing everything all over. "What is this crap?! It's like…strawberry barf. You're all insane."

"Get a towel, Akaya," Sanada frowned at the freshman, who was fussing over his spoiled jersey. While Kirihara angrily mopped up the traces of strawberry Ensure on the floor, Niou held the messy can up between his fingertips. He gave it a little shake.

"Who's next?" He gave his doubles partner a little shove, looking far too pleased for anyone's good.

"Fine," Yagyuu consented after another harder shove, gingerly taking the can and wiping off Kirihara's pink splatters with a towel. He managed to pour a little into his mouth, touching the rim of the can as little as possible. He swallowed hard, but remained straight-faced. "There. Happy?"

"Marui's turn," Niou decided next, accepting the can from Yagyuu only to shove it at Marui. He grinned rather wickedly. "Strawberry, Bunta. Yummy, yummy."

"Get out of my face, Niou." Marui attempted to shove his knee into Niou's chest, but succeeded only in knocking himself off balance a little. He stuck his gum on top of the can, peering at it for a moment. The advertisers had tried to make it look tasty, since there was a big picture of a strawberry and a splash of pink liquid on it. He managed to get the last trickle of what was left. Disgusting. Something like strawberry and soy milk and melted ice cream all in one. With powdered vitamins. "It's gross," he decided, pulling his gum off of the can. Thankfully it still had some flavor left. The Ensure stuff seemed to coat the inside of a person's mouth like chalk.

"What about you, Niou?" Sanada remarked after making sure Kirihara had mopped up every last fleck of strawberry slime from the locker room floor.

"It's gone," Niou said, tipping the can upside-down. "Marui loved it so much he drank all the rest. And to think I actually wanted to sympathize this time."

They all knew he was being sarcastic enough to deserve the couple of bruises they tried to give him.

* * *

Yukimura stayed on the ventilator for over a month, so after awhile the Rikkai regulars had to be creative with their visits. If visiting someone who was stuck motionless in bed twenty-four hours a day was boring, actually being the person in the bed had to be even more boring. The fact that the ICU was just a _little bit_ strict also prevented them from doing everything they would have liked to. They taped old tennis matches off of TV and sat around watching them on his hospital room television, all craning their heads to see. They brought him music, which they tended to argue over since Sanada said most of it wasn't very relaxing and Niou said everything that Sanada approved of was boring and stupid. They also didn't seem thrilled when Marui tried to sing along whenever Sanada let them play something remotely normal.

They also talked. At first holding conversations with Yukimura in the room was difficult, since it was basically impossible to ignore him. Especially after he started glaring at them every once in awhile. It honestly freaked Marui out, since he hadn't seen Yukimura glare quite that much ever before. He seemed a lot happier when they started including him. Or pretending to include him, anyway. Marui wasn't sure if asking a person occasional rhetorical questions counted or not.

Yagyuu brought Yukimura books on tape, Jackal brought him dubbed foreign films, and Niou brought him out of season holiday decorations. Sanada and Yanagi tried to hold normal conversations with him. Kirihara, they found out, broke into Yukimura's locker in the change rooms and brought him one of his rackets. Marui just pounded his brain for awhile.

Yukimura liked plants, and plants were a good hospital present, except that plants weren't allowed in the ICU.

Cake was another obvious choice, but Yukimura couldn't eat it.

After some deliberation and a rather hesitant exchange with one of Yukimura's nurses, Marui brought him a strawberry shake.

"We brought you a treat, Yukimura-Buchou!" Kirihara bounded into Yukimura's room that day, almost colliding with the bed, as usual.

Yukimura, for his part, never knew what to expect when Kirihara said they had brought him a treat. Once the treat had been a game of trivia where they partnered him with Yagyuu as a handicap. The horrendously glitzy boy band poster Niou _so kindly_ brought for his room would have probably still been taped up if his little sister hadn't begged to take it home with her. Luckily he had plenty of time to decide how to go about payback.

Marui held up the shake in all its McDonald's glory. "Real food!"

"You know he won't be able to taste it, right?" Jackal asked Marui seriously.

"Yeah," Marui shot back, then turned his attention back to Yukimura. "I just thought you'd want what everybody else can have. The nurse said she could put it through your tube as a treat."

"It's better than that crap!" Kirihara pointed to the formula currently hanging from the IV pole again.

The shake was half melted by the time the nurse gave it to Yukimura and she only gave him part of it because she said his stomach probably couldn't handle the whole thing, but Marui, Jackal, and Kirihara all watched the pink stuff travel down the tubing. It felt kind of good, knowing that Yukimura was getting real food. Kind of right when so many other things felt so wrong.

* * *


	2. Hospital food

**Strawberry Milkshakes, Chunk 2**

**Disclaimer:** Familiar characters, settings, events, and concepts all belong to Takeshi Konomi.

**Note: **Sorry the chunks of this aren't exactly cut into neat little chapters - as I mentioned, this started off as an extremely long one-shot. I'm guessing there are about two more chunks after this one.

Sanada might seem a little out of character in his tiny appearance here - it sort of depends on if you think he's a little more relaxed than usual around Yukimura or not.

* * *

After Yukimura got his breathing tube out, Sanada informed everyone that he didn't want any visitors for awhile. Yukimura not wanting visitors? That was a shock. Several of them protested, and although no one actually said anything it was obvious that feelings had been hurt, especially after everyone figured out that Sanada and Yanagi were still welcome. 

"That's not fair!" Kirihara had risen from the bench where he was sitting, ready to kick something in frustration.

"I don't get it," Jackal confessed. "Yukimura doesn't seem like the kind of person to turn down visitors, especially now that he's doing better."

"It's kind of rude," Marui put in, snapping his gum.

"Just don't bother him," Sanada had finally responded rather testily after hearing everyone's complaints again. "He'll ask for everyone soon enough."

It wasn't until after Sanada left that Yanagi spoke up. "Yukimura can't talk very well yet," he explained. "I don't think he wants very many people to visit him until he can speak more clearly. It shouldn't be too long."

* * *

It was about a week. Yukimura was moved out of the ICU and into a regular room by then. With the breathing tube and ventilator gone, he looked a lot more normal. They had walked in and Marui was thrilled to see Yukimura sitting up in bed, smiling and talking with Sanada and Yanagi. Only the feeding tube in his nose was still taped to his face. He seemed tired, but he greeted all of them and thanked them for being patient. 

"We should have a cake or something," Marui commented, "To celebrate, you know."

"They aren't letting me eat solid food yet," Yukimura said, looking serious. In fact, he almost looked sorry. Almost. They knew he was probably more sorry that he couldn't eat cake than he was about effectively preventing all the rest of them from celebrating with it.

"That's stupid," Kirihara huffed.

"Cake isn't a solid," Marui tried to reason. "It's more like a…squishy food. Yagyuu, what's that state between solids and liquids?"

"There really isn't one," Yagyuu answered, leaning against the wall slightly. "Cake is a solid."

"I could choke," Yukimura explained, although even Sanada and Yanagi knew that was a quest for everyone's attention. Yukimura probably didn't want some cake get getting more attention than he did. They were all silent for a moment, and then Yukimura smiled pleasantly. "You know what we should do? Why don't you all get ice cream? I can have a shake, like the one Marui brought me once. Maybe they'll even let me taste it this time."

Jackal and Marui agreed to fetch the snacks and dragged a protesting Kirihara along to carry things. By the time they returned from the McDonald's their ice creams were dribbling dangerously in the cardboard holder and Kirihara's hands were covered in vanilla and chocolate.

"My hands are still sticky!" Kirihara whined after wiping his hands off with several McDonald's napkins. He held his soggy ice cream cone in one hand and tried to lick up all the trickles of melted chocolate. "You gave me the crappy one!"

"I paid for yours, so don't complain!" Jackal bit off a piece of sugar cone.

Yanagi swallowed a lick of his vanilla ice cream before stating, "You're the only one who wanted a plain chocolate cone, Akaya. You'd get that one no matter what."

"I wanted a sundae!" Kirihara protested while dripping ice cream onto the floor. Sanada saw the mess but didn't say anything for the time being. He would eventually, Marui knew. Maybe Yukimura's hospital room floor wasn't as important to Sanada as the locker room tiles, but there was definitely no way Kirihara was going to get away with leaving chocolate dribbles there.

Marui ate his own cone with one hand while holding out the other hand to Kirihara. "I'll finish it for you if you want, Akaya."

"And I'll spit on a napkin and clean your face with it," Niou said, earning a nasty look from Kirihara and a frown from Yagyuu.

"Yukimura, that's a disgusting trick," Sanada commented dryly, holding his ice cream in one hand and Yukimura's shake in the other. At Sanada's comment everyone's attention shifted to their captain. Yukimura was quietly sipping some of his melting milkshake through a clear plastic straw while the rest of it went through the tube in his nose. The sight made Marui's stomach do a little flip flop, and from the looks on several of his teammates' faces he was sure he wasn't the only one getting that feeling.

"It's good," Yukimura paused to smile, almost laughing at their reactions. "Thank you for bringing it."

* * *

It took awhile for Yukimura to get rid of his feeding tube. They had assumed that after he was given permission to eat real food, he would enthusiastically scarf down the rice porridge and boiled vegetables that came on his tray. He usually ate at least some of it, Yanagi reported, but quit after a few bites and said he wasn't hungry. Marui had a hard time believing that because Yukimura had the skinny arms of a starving third world orphan at the time. 

"He hasn't actually eaten food in over a month," Marui said while he and Jackal got off the bus near the hospital. "If I had to go that long without eating, I'd want to eat _everything_."

"You want to eat everything now," Jackal pointed out.

"You know what I mean!" Marui shoved the door to the hospital open. A whole month with no eating – it would be hell. Absolute hell. He'd have to make a list of foods to eat when he got better or something. How had Yukimura survived it? And why the heck didn't he want to eat like crazy now?

Coincidently, Yukimura had a tray of food in front of him when they arrived. He glanced up at them when they arrived, smiling a little and leaning away from the tray. "Hi Marui, Jackal."

"Hey, Yukimura," Marui returned, making his way to the bed to inspect the tray of food. He hadn't been exposed to much hospital food, but it didn't look as bad as he'd heard. He'd imagined piles of unidentifiable goop and dried out meat and rice, but the the stuff in front of Yukimura definitely looked edible. Definitely. Everything came in little dishes on a bright paper placemat – it looked like there was okayu with pickled ume and some kind of soup and carrot, along with fruit and a yogurt dessert. Yukimura hadn't touched any of it. The only thing he seemed remotely interested in was the three glasses with straws lined up in front of him. Marui picked up the dish of rice porridge. "This okayu looks kind of good."

"You can probably have it," Yukimura answered in between sips of milk. He brushed his fingers over the call light next to him on the bed. "I'll ask the nurse."

Marui caught Jackal's frown and quickly set the dish back down. "I don't want it, Yukimura! I meant that you should eat it because it looks good!" The truth was a little bit of both – Yukimura should eat the okayu and pickle, but if he really couldn't, it wasn't like Marui was going to turn it down. It would be a sin to throw away perfectly good pickled ume, after all, even if it was hospital ume.

"I'm not going to eat it," Yukimura shrugged a little and leaned forward so he could continue drinking his milk. When the nurse came in to find out what he wanted, he glanced towards Marui and Jackal. "Would it be all right for my friends to eat what's left on my tray?"

The nurse stepped over and glanced at all of the dishes. "Yukimura-kun, you didn't eat anything yet. If you can wait a little while, I'll come and help you."

"Really, I'm done," Yukimura shook his head. "I don't want any of it."

"There's yogurt." The nurse peeled the top off of the container and stirred it with the spoon on Yukimura's tray, but he shook his head when she held it out to him. Marui got the impression that Yukimura sometimes drove his nurses to desperation, because after trying to convince him to eat some of the okayu and the carrots the nurse finally sighed. "Yukimura-kun, your friends can have what's here, but I want you to drink a shake then."

"All right," Yukimura agreed, nodding. Marui almost let out a sigh of relief, because listening to Yukimura and his nurse fussing hadn't exactly been his idea of a nice visit. Jackal didn't seem to mind too much, but Jackal could put up with almost anything. Yukimura leaned back after the nurse left, tilting his head towards his tray a little. "You can go ahead and eat it now."

Jackal had to be offered the yogurt several times before he agreed to eat it, but Marui didn't even bother to politely refuse. He sat down on the side of Yukimura's bed and found the chopsticks on the tray. Yukimura's sadly rejected pickle was deliciously salty – maybe hospitals knew at least something about food. Unfortunately, the rest of the meal was less than fabulous: the okayu's consistency was all wrong, the carrots were too soft, and the few noodles in the soup were tasteless and sticky. Yukimura's nurse came back in just as Marui was searching through the noodles for another mushroom. She set a paper cup down on his tray, unwrapping a straw. "I'd like you to finish at least half of that, Yukimura-kun. Take as long as you need."

Marui leaned to look into the cup. The nurse's version of a strawberry shake seemed significantly different than Marui's. Significantly different in a sad, gross way. The stuff in the cup was a darker pink than a regular milkshake and it was rather melted and lumpy.

"Thank you," Yukimura said to the nurse, already leaning forward to sip on the straw. Marui resisted the urge to grab it away and dump it down the sink.

"That milkshake is all wrong," Marui critiqued after the nurse left, watching the level go steadily down as Yukimura continued to drink it.

Even Jackal seemed to think it was messed up enough to comment on. He tossed the empty yogurt container into the waste paper basket. "Marui and I will go and get you a real one if you want."

"They'd want me to drink this anyway," Yukimura said, taking a break. He swallowed whatever was left in his mouth and pushed his head back into the pillows behind him. "They mix Ensure into it. It's really not bad."

"Gross! No wonder it looked messed up." Marui picked up the cup off of Yukimura's tray and looked at the contents again. He swirled it around a little before setting it down again. "Even your hospital food is better than that stuff." If all they gave Yukimura was less than appetizing hospital food and Ensure-tainted milkshakes, then it was no huge surprise that he wasn't eating anything. The solution wasn't that difficult to determine. Marui slid off of the bed. "Tell you what. Next time we come, we'll bring you something really good. Jackal's mom makes really delicious coconut tapioca stuff. And – oh – there's this one place near the park that makes a soup with these soft dumplings that fall apart in your mouth."

Yukimura glanced at his disgusting shake and then at Marui. "I appreciate it, but…"

"It's not a problem," Marui interrupted, retrieving his coat. "I love picking out food. I'll find you something perfect; I promise."

"He will," Jackal put in as he pulled on his own coat. "He'll taste test it and everything."

Marui nodded and searched his coat pockets for gum. "Don't worry about it, Yukimura. I really want to do this. It'll be fun. And I promise it won't wreck my tennis or something stupid like that."

"All right, but only if it's no trouble." Yukimura finally nodded, watching as he and Jackal got ready to leave. "Thank you."

"No trouble at all," Marui grinned and headed for the door before looking over his shoulder at Jackal. "Do you think we have time to stop at that soup place?"


	3. Sanada's Mother's Awesome Soup

**Strawberry Milkshakes, Chunk 3**

**Disclaimer:** Familiar characters, settings, events, and concepts all belong to Takeshi Konomi.

**Note: **A shorter, slightly more serious chunk this time - and one more after this!

* * *

Marui had assumed that his most excellent plan would take off splendidly. Jackal kindly convinced his mother to make coconut tapioca, which was deliciously sweet and soft. When his own mother made broiled salmon with the tender meat practically falling off the bones, he found the self-control to leave the extra leftover serving alone. The noodle shop had shrimp ramen, the Chinese place had almost caramel-y sweet cashew chicken, and in the pastry shop he found a slice of chocolate cake so chockfull of gooey syrup that it fell apart when they put it in the takeout box. Kirihara suggested that perhaps what their captain really needed was some _meat_, and promptly secured a Styrofoam container of huge chunks of beef slathered in juice and sauce. Yagyuu thought that idea was ridiculous because ill people doubtlessly needed light, nutrient-packed food like the unidentifiable egg dish he himself brought on one occasion. Even Niou came with mysterious deep fried things on sticks, suggesting they were the perfect opposite of Ensure and therefore also the perfect complement. 

And Yukimura looked sincerely sorry and rejected all of it. "Thank you so much, but I'm really not hungry right now," he said, glancing apologetically between the food and whoever supplied it each time. Time after time containers were sent off with the nurse to be labeled and placed in the fridge for later or passed around the room for everyone else to try. Marui found the behavior impossible to understand – everything everyone brought was enough to make his own mouth water and stomach grumble. It had been almost impossible to leave that piece of cake alone until after Yukimura rejected it.

"Come on, Yukimura. Just smell it." Marui peeled the lid off Sanada's container on a rare occasion when he came with just the vice-captain and Yanagi. It had been necessary to tag along on their visit to find out what kinds of delicious things even those two had been concerned enough to force on Yukimura, after all. He held the still warm broth near Yukimura's face. "It smells so good. Don't you want to at least try it?"

"We'll eat with you, Seiichi," Yanagi offered, sitting in the chair next to Yukimura's bed with a towel-wrapped dish of green tea okayu on his lap. He glanced at Sanada. "Genichirou's mother made the soup especially for you."

"I'm not hungry now," Yukimura protested gently but firmly, "I promise to try it later. Your mother will understand, won't she, Sanada?"

"She understands you're not well," Sanada answered Yukimura's question rather indifferently, not conveying a hint of the disappointment and irritation Marui himself was beginning to feel.

"This won't taste right unless you eat it fresh," Marui commented a little pushily, inhaling the aroma-laced steam from Sanada's mother's soup. It had shrimp in it. And mushrooms. Heck, his own drool was going to be in it if this continued much longer. "Smell. It's like some god of soup taught Sanada's mother how to make this step by step. Probably gave her the recipe. And I brought ice cream for dessert and that's going to melt!"

Yukimura sat there staring at all of them for awhile. Marui wondered if perhaps he was actually feeling just a tad bit testy, but his captain finally sighed. "Is it really that important to you to see me eat?" he asked, slowly placing both his skinny arms on top of the tray table over his bed. Sanada and Yanagi didn't offer much of a response, but Marui held the soup up in both hands and gave Yukimura his best 'hello, it's obviously a sin not to eat this' look. Yukimura caught the look, swallowed, and sighed again. "All right. I'll try everything, but it could take awhile." He smiled a little. "And you'll have to help me eat all of it, because there's definitely too much."

Marui didn't have a problem with that. Soon enough he found himself sitting on the foot of Yukimura's bed with a dish of Sanada's mother's soup and a pair of cafeteria chopsticks, potentially ruining his dinner in one of the best ways possible. The broth was exceptionally savory and flavorful, and Sanada had carefully made sure that everyone got a fair amount of noodles and shrimp when he divided it. Mmm…with a cooking goddess for a mother it was no wonder Sanada never bought his school lunch.

"We had this at your house once, didn't we?" Yukimura asked Sanada, and Marui glanced up to see him awkwardly dragging a spoon through the soup before shakily bringing a messy tangle of noodles to his mouth. The movement was so un-Yukimura-like that Marui caught himself just staring. So that was why Yukimura refused to eat while they were around. It quickly became apparent that he wasn't the only one watching, though Sanada and Yanagi's looks were more evaluative than surprised.

"Yes," Sanada answered, not commenting on Yukimura's clumsiness. Marui slowly chewed on a mushroom. This apparently wasn't anything new to Yanagi and Sanada. It felt both uncomfortable and privileging to be in on something Yukimura preferred only his two closest friends to know much about. How often had the rest of them been visiting Yukimura without seeing him do much at all?

"It's good," Yukimura said quietly after swallowing, focusing his attention on guiding the spoon through the soup again. It was sad and kind of pathetic, really, and Marui would have felt guilty for pushing Yukimura into putting his awkward movements on display if he weren't so pleased to see him eating steadily.

"Definitely worth the work," Marui offered, forcing a cheerful note into his voice before slurping up a mouthful of noodles. He saw Yukimura's eyes flick up and smiled while swallowing. "A little out of practice, hmm?"

"More than a little," Yukimura commented almost exasperatedly before Sanada or Yanagi could say anything, but he was grinning.

"There's a fairly high chance he's asked his therapists to prioritize helping him regain his racket grip before helping him use chopsticks properly again," Yanagi said as dryly as ever, but Marui caught the slight twitch at the side of his mouth.

"Doubtlessly," Sanada chimed in darkly, expertly lifting a clump of noodles to his mouth.

Yukimura threw the jibes back, Marui laughed, and despite the fact that they were in a hospital and it took Yukimura an eternity to eat, it honestly felt almost the same way as interacting with Yukimura before he got sick. Sometimes it was difficult to remember how sharp-minded and, well, _fun_ he could actually be before being inducted into the brave yet drippily sad hospital patient buchou role. That is, when he wasn't going all _Tennis Deserves Utmost Dedication and Respect _on everyone, anyway.

"I'm kind of glad you said you didn't want the cake," Marui mentioned while Yukimura continued to work away on his soup long after the other three of them were finished. "It was good. Really good. I mean, the syrup was practically melted right into the cake, and the frosting was fluffy and kind of cool and sweet…" Marui caught himself. "Sorry."

"It's okay," Yukimura laughed quietly. "It was hard to turn down. That and the fish, especially."

The earlier rejection was even more exasperating when Marui recalled that Yukimura had turned away everything in favor of sucking down more disgusting protein milkshakes. On the way out of the hospital he huffed a sigh and turned his attention to Yanagi. "For future reference, if I'm ever sick like Yukimura, I won't reject anything. I'll eat it."

"Yukimura is prideful," Yanagi reminded him. "It wasn't easy for him to do what he did today. He usually won't even eat in front of Sanada and me."

Marui nodded rather soberly. "But again, for future reference, I have no pride when it comes to food."

Yanagi was quiet for awhile, but he eventually spoke again. "There's also the possibility that Yukimura actually likes the hospital milkshakes."

Marui could have sworn he heard Sanada suppress a snort in the midst of his own laughter.


	4. Cake and Ice Cream

**Strawberry Milkshakes, Chunk 4**

**Disclaimer:** Familiar characters, settings, events, and concepts all belong to Takeshi Konomi.

**Note: **This is the last of the big chunks. A little anticlimactic, but as I mentioned before, this wasn't meant to be multi-chaptered originally. I'll tag on an afterward snippet in a couple days.

One other thing - I've seen both "sempai" and "senpai" used as terms of address - which is the correct one?

All the best - thanks for reading! -Ara

* * *

Happily, Yukimura slowly but steadily regained his strength and coordination over the next few weeks, and with it an appetite that at least remotely resembled a normal person's. Unhappily, end of year projects and exams began taking precedence over hospital visits towards the end of February. All of a sudden March had arrived and with it Yukimura's birthday. In a fit of frantic last minute planning, Marui once again found himself in charge of ordering ice creams with Jackal and Kirihara. 

"It's Yukimura-buchou's birthday, so let's get sundaes this time," Kirihara suggested while they waited together in line. He gave Jackal and Marui what was apparently his super innocent convincing smile, but Marui honestly thought it was kind of creepy whenever the cutesy Akaya grin was directed at him. Borderline creepy and downright annoying. Kirihara never smiled just to look cute.

"You just don't want anything to drip on you," Marui responded. Kirihara would definitely be delegated the position of soggy cardboard holder carrier, just because Marui said so.

"No!" Kirihara argued back. "I actually want a sundae, Marui-senpai! A chocolate one. Not another stupid cone."

"They cost the same," Jackal pointed out in a bored tone, his hands stuffed in his pockets.

Kirihara turned the happy-smiley look back on and aimed all of its fluorescent brightness at Jackal. "That means we can get them, right Jackal-senpai? And that you won't mind paying for mine because it costs the same as a dumb cone?"

"You owe me big time, Akaya," Jackal offered as his answer. He glanced up at the menu list, humming some unidentifiable tune under his breath. Probably the theme to some murder investigation show, because he probably wanted to kill Kirihara, Marui assumed.

"Having to spend your birthday in the hospital would totally suck," Marui mused out loud, glancing from the menu to Jackal. On your birthday you were supposed to be able to do pretty much whatever you wanted and eat junk food and skip out on all your chores. Yukimura had probably been stuck spending his watching daytime TV and being told to take naps. "It's too bad Yukimura couldn't go home in time."

Jackal stopped humming and folded his arms over his chest. "Yanagi said he can't go home until he can walk, and I guess he can't yet. I don't know; I haven't seen him for awhile."

"Me neither," Marui put in, stepping up to the counter. "What are we ordering?" They weren't sure what kinds of sundaes everyone would want, so they got a variety and made Kirihara carry all eight of them. They still dripped on him too, dribbles of vanilla soft serve leaking out of the plastic containers. Marui felt secretly triumphant and judging by the grin Jackal gave him when Kirihara started whining, his doubles partner felt the same way. He would have said something fabulously smart, but the risk of Kirihara throwing the sundaes down was just too great. No use wasting food.

* * *

Marui hadn't actually been able to visit Yukimura for a whole two weeks and either having a birthday was extremely good for him or he'd improved enough to warrant birthday-like celebrations. Yukimura was actually sitting in a chair. Wearing a sweatshirt and pajama bottoms. Reading a tennis magazine. Just exactly how long had it been since he'd looked that…well…normal? He'd been lying in bed wearing stupid flimsy hospital gowns for over two months. Marui was, in all honestly, suprised. Thank all the powers above, Yukimura was finally really getting better – and with only a month to spare before tennis season started. 

"Yukimura-buchou, you're wearing real clothes," Kirihara announced dumbly, glancing between Yukimura and the rest of the regulars who had already arrived. "And you're not in bed."

Yukimura just smiled and nodded while he dropped his magazine onto the tray table next to him. "There's more room for everyone else to sit if I'm not in bed." He pushed himself up and sat a little straighter. "And, anyway, I can't really lie around if I want to go home in a week or two." Marui caught the way Yukimura's eyes flashed a little when he said that, gauging their reactions. He caught the slight smirk too. Their captain just smiled at their exclamations and excitement. "For real," Yukimura broke into their chatter, nodding. "I have a few things to work on before I can go, but it looks good." He then changed the subject abruptly, saying, "There's still cake left from my family, if anyone wants any."

Yagyuu was kind enough to slice pieces of cake for everyone while Marui and Jackal handed the sundaes out. That proved to be a problem, because no one really wanted the two caramel ones they'd purchased. Yanagi took one, but only after making sure to mention that he would have preferred a plain cone. Then Sanada and Jackal had to go and claim two of the three chocolate ones, leaving Niou and Kirihara to argue over the last one. Maybe they should have just gotten boring old cones.

"Yukimura-buchou, tell Niou-senpai this one is mine!" Kirihara tried to guard the sundae he was holding.

Niou smirked and waited. "I'm the senpai, Akaya, which means I get it."

"As the senpai, you should look out for me!" Kirihara argued back, deciding to try the cute look on Niou.

"Yeah, and looking out for you means teaching you to respect your seniors. Anyway, you should really let Yukimura pick; it's his birthday and that is the last chocolate one," Marui pointed out after swallowing a bite of ice cream. He turned to Yukimura. "We didn't know if you'd want ice cream or a shake, so we got both."

"I'll take the shake." Yukimura shifted in his chair and reached out for it. "Thank you."

"I get Yukimura-buchou's sundae!" Kirihara announced immediately. He smiled and shoved a spoon into the sundae. "Which is this chocolate one."

"That's not fair, Akaya! You didn't even pay!" Marui didn't even bother to swallow the bite of ice cream in his mouth that time.

"Actually, Akaya, I would have taken a strawberry one," Yukimura stated with a small smile while stiffly stirring his shake with the straw. "And I should get to decide who gets my sundae, don't you think?"

Kirihara frowned and huffed noisily. He angrily held the melting chocolate sundae out to Niou. "Here. Take it."

"I decided I want this one instead." Niou picked up a spoon and the leftover caramel sundae. "I don't want your drippy sundae, Akaya."

If Kirihara was irritated with Niou, it didn't last long in the midst of the birthday party – and they were definitely having one, even if it was unconventional. When Yukimura's nurse came in to check on him she actually laughed. Maybe it was the site of Yanagi, Kirihara, and Marui all crammed onto Yukimura's mussed up hospital bed, or Niou trying to get Yagyuu and Jackal to sing along with the radio, or Yukimura, Sanada, and Yanagi in a debate over something in Yukimura's magazine. Maybe it was the cake crumbs and abandoned trivia game and toned-down ruckus in general. Whatever it was, the nurse just stood with her hand on the door for a moment. "I'll come back later, Yukimura-kun," she said, grinning, "You boys look like you're having a good time."

Maybe because – hello? – they actually were having a good time. They had cake and ice cream, they were celebrating a birthday, and Yukimura's discharge from the hospital was actually in sight. According to Marui, everything was just about right in the world for the moment. That would probably change within an hour or two, but for now – yeah, it was all good.

"Who gets your sundae, Yukimura?" Marui tossed his empty plastic dish into the waste paper basket, ready to retrieve and consume the half-melted strawberry sundae still sitting next to what was left of the birthday cake.

Yukimura looked over from his conversation with Sanada and Yanagi. "You know what? I'll eat it myself."

Man, it was good to have him back – even if it did mean less free food.

* * *

On a sunny day in late April, Marui and Kirihara hunted out Yukimura and Sanada after practice in order to ask about match details. They found them both discussing something in the clubroom, Yukimura sitting on top of the desk and Sanada in a chair with a thick binder. It was a refreshingly familiar sight and Marui half expected Yanagi to come in any minute with a stack of disturbing file folders or some imposing chart or another. Yukimura hadn't recovered completely yet – they never actually saw him do much besides walk around and critique people – but he sure as hell was back to his insanely dedicated tennis self. 

"Hi, Marui; Akaya." Yukimura glanced up from the papers he was looking at with a smile. He reached for a can on the desk next to him, taking a long sip. "What do you need?"

"What is that?" Marui stared at the can in Yukimura's hand. It wasn't shaped right to be soda, and the sides were white and bright pink. It wasn't, was it? It had to be. Strawberry Ensure. Extra calories for decrepit old people. "How can you drink that stuff? You don't even need that, Yukimura!"

"What is it?" Kirihara stepped closer to the desk to look and made a face while Yukimura calmly took another sip. "Yukimura-buchou, that stuff is gross! It's crap! Niou got us some to try. Just watching you drink it makes me want to puke all over this floor."

"If you do, you're cleaning it up," Sanada put in from his chair, not looking disturbed by Yukimura's choice of beverages in the least. Cripes, was Sanada a secret Ensure drinker too?

"I still have some weight to gain back." Yukimura shrugged nonchalantly, then proceeded to finish off the can.

Marui fought the urge to pull at his hair. "Yeah, and you could gain it back eating stuff that actually tastes good! That stuff isn't even mixed into a milkshake! Yanagi even joked about you liking it – I think. That was supposed to be a joke way back then, wasn't it, Sanada?"

"Yukimura-buchou, you make me sick," Kirihara stated while watching as Yukimura neatly licked his lips.

"It's not that bad plain." Yukimura shrugged again. He cleanly tossed the can into the waste paper basket across the room and smiled. "I drank it in the hospital all the time. I kind of like it."


	5. Afterward

**Strawberry Milkshakes, the afterward**

As promised, and ever-so-slighty cracky too.

All the best. - Ara

* * *

Visiting Yukimura after his surgery in July was excessively…stressful. He wasn't thrilled about the results of the Kantou Tournament and he was groggy from pain killers and he was in an irritable mood, even if he tried not to show it. 

"Maybe you all should just go," he said, trying to smile while picking at the tape covering his IV a little. "It's been a long day and I'm not very good company right now."

"Don't worry about it, Yukimura," Sanada said evenly and then tersely added, "It's understandable." They all nodded and agreed while Yukimura sighed and tiredly smiled. They stuck around long enough to say good-bye, which ended up including a discussion about training for Nationals and Yukimura's therapy and stupid Seigaku.

"Marui, would you please stop that?!" Yukimura suddenly interrupted their good-bye discussion rather forcefully. His smile was gone and he sighed heavily. "It's making everything worse."

"Stop what?" Marui asked, genuinely surprised. Cripes, he was just talking like everyone else. And finishing his soda. And chewing gum.

"Making that noise with your straw," Yukimura answered almost impatiently before sighing again and rolling onto his side. "I'm so hungry and it's making it worse."

"What?" Marui stared at him. Since when did Yukimura get irritably hungry? He glanced at the rest of team. They seemed surprised as well.

"I said I'm starving. I had to start fasting for surgery last night and they still won't let me have anything." Yukimura rubbed one of his hands across his forehead, apparently not caring if anyone knew these particular details. "Nothing except ice chips. I could eat a…a hamburger. More than one. Lots."

"A hamburger," Marui repeated, still shocked. If it had been anyone else, it would have seemed perfectly natural. Yukimura didn't get hungry though, not this kind of hungry. Cripes, he'd actually avoided eating during his last hospitalization. Talk about a 180.

"Tell the nurse to come and tell me if I can eat!" Yukimura called when they were leaving, and they could see him looking after them seriously. "And bring me something when you come next time! Hamburgers! And a milkshake!"

"Do you think he's delusional from all those meds?" Niou nudged Yagyuu as they made their way down the hall.

"Maybe he's stressed out," Jackal offered.

"Or going crazy from being in the hospital too much," Kirihara put in. "Or from not being allowed to have his strawberry crap."

"Ensure withdrawal. Definitely." Niou nodded.

Sanada shook his head and Yanagi sighed. "Yukimura isn't going crazy," Yanagi said in a longsuffering voice. "And he stopped drinking Ensure months ago. He's just hungry like any normal person."

He expected them to believe _that_?


End file.
